


Too Bad

by pulpriter



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-22 23:52:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4855388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pulpriter/pseuds/pulpriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phryne's retrospection</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Bad

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: Series 3 spoilers. So go to Netflix and watch! They’ve been out since last week, don’t tell me you haven’t binge watched them yet! Then come back and read this.  
> I don't own these characters, but they are darlings.  
> Please review and comment. I've missed you all.

Phryne was musing about the detective who had just left her house. He seemed to be rather a cut above most policemen she had met. Intelligent, thoughtful—and rather attractive, in his own way. Too bad that he had answered her question about “babes” by saying “We were never blessed”; Phryne would never break her own personal rule about married men. 

Phryne arrived at home after finding a foolproof way to destroy some photographic plates that the Inspector had given her. He had amazed her when he did it. She already felt he was a good man, but it appeared he was much more than she had thought. Too bad other people in his position didn’t have the compassion that he had.

Phryne was driving her beloved Hispano home from City South station. She couldn’t get her mind off the conversation she had just had with Jack, in which he admitted to her that his wife had left him. Phryne considered how this might affect her personal rule about married men. _Now what do I do?_ she wondered. _It’s too bad that such a man should be alone; he wouldn’t have to be…_

Phryne was gazing at the painting as she hung it on her wall. She had a satisfied smile on her face. The Inspector had just left, after she displayed to him the nude that Sarcelle had painted of her—and after the Inspector had displayed a blush that he swiftly denied but which had been there, nonetheless. And that wasn’t all he had done that day. _He kissed me!_ He didn’t seem ready to admit that anything between them might have changed, but it surely had, even if he had once told her that “a marriage is still a marriage.” _It would be too bad,_ she thought, _if a man who kisses like that should be out of bounds._

Phryne was driving home through the streets of Melbourne, considering the day just past. After her attempt at teaching social graces to underprivileged girls had turned into a huge disaster—including murder and pedophilia—she had admitted to Jack what a complete fool she felt. He had responded to her by supporting her notion of teaching girls self-defense. _Where does this man get his ideas?_ she wondered. _He isn’t even threatened by women knowing judo. Too bad that there aren’t more men who think the way he does._

Phryne had just said farewell to her last birthday party guest, her dear friend Mac. Alone after the terrible events of the last week, Phryne finally took time to think about all that had happened. Jack had given himself away when he had Hugh lock her in a jail cell. _He would go to such lengths to protect me, and I would do the same for him._ Phryne considered how rare it was to have such a relationship with any man. _I thought for a moment at that masquerade ball that we might…but no._ It was really too bad that it hadn’t happened. 

Phryne was still trying to take it all in. Her sedate policeman now has an ex-wife, and an ex-father-in-law who is accused of murder? She had come to think of Jack as existing only in her orbit: but obviously, Jack had had a full life without her. His former wife seemed like a perfectly pleasant person, although for an ex-wife she seemed rather quick to turn to Jack for help. _Too bad I can’t really be objective about Rosie, but I can’t forget the sound of failure in his voice when he first told me about her._

Just back from Queenscliff, Phryne was enjoying a drink—not hiding it from any temperance reformers—and thinking of Jack. That adventure with him had been enchanting! Sneaking around, sharing champagne in her bedroom, dropping off the side of a pier into the water, walking on the beach… _Too bad that he looks like that in a bathing suit! I may have to redouble my efforts with this man,_ she thought. 

Phryne sat in her parlour alone, in tears, and virtually in shock. Jack had just left…had he just walked out of her life? Just when she had begun to think of him as part of her world... _It’s too bad to even consider that he could walk away from what we do together, from us,_ she thought. _But he just did._

Phryne was sitting and listening to the wireless, and reminiscing about the case she and Jack had just concluded. It was true that someone had died, and she herself had been threatened…but most of all, she thought of the fun she and Jack had together. Undercover Jack! _And wouldn’t he be lovely under the covers, at that?_ She laughed at her own silly pun. _Too bad I can’t hear_ that _voice in the morning!_

Phryne had just come home, seeking a refuge. She felt wrung out and raw. She tried to think of Jack, risking his job to come after her; Jack, shooting Sidney Fletcher before Fletcher could shoot her; Jack, his disappointment in his former father-in-law clear on his face. But all she could think about was Jack, going to Rosie, and Rosie, falling into those arms that were so familiar—those arms Rosie had left behind! But he wouldn’t be Jack if he had turned his back on Rosie. She knew this. It only made sense. It was fine. Oh, it was just too bad that the wretched baby wouldn’t stop crying!

After Jack took the contortionist to the station, Phryne stood in her parlour, the recent site of so many unexpected events. First her father had appeared and ruined the evening she had hoped for; then Jack had overindulged in drinking while he waited on her, ending up making a grand, if intoxicated, declaration, just before her father knocked him out. _It’s really too bad,_ she thought, _that we didn’t have a few more moments before Father interrupted. But even more than that—it’s too bad I didn’t really undress him. I think he actually believed me._

Phryne lay in her bed thinking about the Grand Hotel. It was sad seeing its former grandeur fallen into such a state of disrepair. Her mother always said she had lost all reason when Henry had waltzed her around the ballroom. Phryne had never believed in that nonsense…until today. She had enjoyed many waltzes in her lifetime, with many important persons: and she had told him so. But it hadn’t stopped him, and there was no person more important than him when he had taken her in his arms and begun to dance with her. _It’s really too bad that I let him waltz me. I’ll never forget it. Never._

Phryne was flying her plane, headed toward England, trying to save her parents’ marriage. She tried to cast her mind back over the many adventures she had had during her short time back in Melbourne; but only one thought kept taking over. _Leaving him is just too, too bad._


End file.
